The Best Gay Characters In Mainstream Video Games

All forms of popular culture have taken awhile to include more LGBTQ characters, but games especially have used gay and transgender characters as punchlines for a long while now, and only now are we starting to see that shift in earnest. As a result, we still have almost no lead characters in games that are gay outside of the indie scene. Some have been around so long that their great romances are set in stone (Mario/Peach, Link/Zelda) and your new-gen heroes like Master Chief or Kratos or Lara Croft or Nathan Drake are straight, and will probably remain that way.

That doesn’t mean progress hasn’t been made, however. I’ve thought back to the games I’ve played in the last few years, and there have been a number of gay characters that have stood out to me in one way or another. Most have relatively small roles in their games, some don’t. Some have made overt statements made about their sexuality, others haven’t. So in honor of Pride Month, I’ve put together a list of the best in mainstream games.

This won’t be a perfect list, and the gay game characters on it may have their own problems with tropes or stereotypes, but I like them all for different reasons.

Photo: Netherealm

Kung Jin (Mortal Kombat X)

Kung Jin is a new fighter introduced in 2015’s Mortal Kombat X who is significant because his sexuality is only mentioned in passing, and not spotlighted in the least. The fact that Kung Jin is gay is referenced only in a few lines of dialogue, and fighting games, more than most, tend to use tropes when including trans, gay or just effeminate fighters. But Kung Jin is just a badass dude with a bow whose sexuality has nothing to do with how he’s able to murder you fifty different ways.

Photo: 2K

Tiny Tina (Borderlands 2)

Borderlands 2 has a few gay/bi characters, including Sir Hammerlock (who is gay) and Mad Moxxxi (who is bi) but I like the way the game snuck in a few lines to show that Tiny Tina is actually gay herself. She talks about crushing on both Maya and Moxxxi, and the writers have confirmed these were not throwaway lines, and were intentionally written to reveal her preferences. Tiny Tina is one of my favorite Borderlands characters, so I wanted to include her here, even if Hammerlock and Moxxxi might be more overt about their orientation.

Photo: Naughty Dog

Ellie (The Last of Us)

This is probably the closest to a “lead” character on this list, which makes her inclusion significant. The Last of Us had a small cast, but it included actually two gay characters, one being Bill, whom you meet in the main game. Ellie’s presences never seem to come up in the original game, but in the DLC, Left Behind, we see her share a touching kiss with her friend Riley. The brief romance is ill-fated, as tends to happen in games like this, but it was powerful all the same.

Photo: Fullbright

Sam (Gone Home)

Gone Home is technically an indie game, but it received enough attention where I'm comfortable calling it "mainstream." This is an unusual case given that Sam doesn’t actually appear in Gone Home, but she is certainly a character in the game. Really, the character in the game, despite her never showing up in person. You play as her older sister, trying to uncover the mysteries of your empty house, chief among them what’s been going on with your sister. You slowly uncover that she’s been struggling with her sexuality, and while the game seems like it may be going some dark places, by the end, Sam and her girlfriend seem to have found some kind of relatively happy ending.

Photo: EA

Steve Cortez (Mass Effect 3)

Here comes the march of the Bioware games, as far and away the developer has gone out of their way more than anyone else to include LGBTQ characters. But again, early on we ran into this problem where many characters were only gay/bi if you wanted them to be. That changed by Mass Effect 3 when the game started introducing characters that were permanently straight or permanently gay, no matter the gender/preferences of your Shepard. Cortez was your pilot who you learn lost his husband to a Collector raid. As a male Shepard, you can romance him, and that plotline lead to the infamous “Mass Effect Gay Sex Scene” which was more or less shirtless cuddling. Still, it was a good move forward for the series, and the industry as a whole.

Photo: EA

Dorian (Dragon Age: Inquisition)

I will apologize for not playing more Dragon Age, as I know there are a number of gay characters I could include here. I didn’t really like many of the characters in Inquisition, but Dorian was my favorite that I kept in my party just because he was hilarious. He was perhaps a tiny bit stereotypically flamboyant, but I don’t think that’s a problem, and he was just a lot of fun as a party member. Obviously there were a lot of characters I could have put in this Dragon Age spot, and you might have had an alternate favorite.

Photo: LucasArts

Juhani (Knights of the Old Republic)

Way back in KOTOR, Juhani may actually be the oldest character on this list. Jedi aren’t supposed to love, but they can still have preferences, and Juhani was gay in an era where few video game (or Star Wars) characters were. Interestingly, there was a bug that made Juhani respond to advances from either gender, but eventually it was patched out so she remained a lesbian.

Photo: Ubisoft

Dr. Jessica Kandel (The Division)

This is one of those “bit parts” I’m talking about, but considering how few characters The Division has, Kandel has a pretty major role in the game. Her sexuality is revealed in passing, but eventually you as the player are tasked with tracking down her ex-wife Alexis in a rather touching mini-mission that I really loved. Now, after a recent patch, Alexis is safe and sound at the Base of Operations singing Christmas carols. Fantastic.

Photo: EA

You (Many Games)

Yes, you, the player, the hero, the savior of…whatever. There are too many games to count at this point that allow your character to be gay, but as RPGs evolved, one aspect of designing your character meant that you could also pursue the orientation of your choice. In many games that means you can romance both male and female characters, but the point is that in games like Fable, Fallout, Mass Effect, Saints Row, Dragon Age and so on, you can choose to be gay the entire time, if you want. So while iconic game heroes from Mario to Metroid to Kratos to Lara Croft will always be straight, your hero in a number of AAA games can technically be gay, if that’s your desire. And that’s pretty cool.

This is a short list, and I’m sure I missed a few examples that some would have liked to see included. I’m sure some also have various problems as to why some of these characters may not be the “best” gay characters for one reason or another. But this is my list, and I hope it’s able to expand dramatically in the future. That’s certainly the trend, as we move away from stereotypes and jokes to real, LGBTQ characters.